Quote:
Originally Posted by milt
The only jack I have ever seen that wanted to bend in 40 years of working on cars was one that was obviously stressed big time and was "off." If you are on a smooth, level surface where the jack can "creep" as you lift, none I have used will tend to bend. Put the jack under the car at an angle and you may pull the jack over to one side.
If you don't know what you're doing, yes, you can get hurt, or hurt your car. Spending more money on a jack won't prevent that.
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Agree 100%. 30 years of this for me and the only one that bent on me was in the pits at the track, ground wasn't perfectly level, I was in a hurry and was using one of the cheap Chinese HF "lightweight" jacks. Once the car crept just an inch, the jack crumpled like limp linguini. Friend with an M3 had the same problem with similar jack. The beefy Craftsman 2.5 ton jack that I've used for 20 years has never given me one bit of trouble but I need to get the front or rear wheels up on my 2x10's to fit it under. And I can use it to lift my trailer and tow vehicle too. The HF jack blew it's guts trying to lift the front of my X5.
Moral- Being in a hurry when working on a track car is never a good idea. It'll always come back to haunt you. Second moral- just get a good sturdy jack and use it rather than the cheap stuff.